Two Mine Ridge

“Two Mine Ridge”
Crowsnest Pass, Alberta
April 12, 2008
Distance: 14.0 km (8.7 mi)
Cumulative Elevation Gain: 701 m (2300 ft)

The avalanche risk in the Rockies was so high the advisory read: “Better to dust off the bike and go for a ride.” Dinah and I didn’t get on our bikes, but we did dust off our hiking boots to take on the Two Mine Trail described in Hiking the Historic Crown est Pass. Despite the name, much of the trip was off-trail. Since we reached a ridgetop, it seems apt to call it "Two Mine Ridge."

The trail reaches a high point on the south end of Livingstone Range. We didn’t do the suggested one-way trip since it involves taking two vehicles. Instead, we started at the cemetery and followed the ridge up. We saw little sign of the old mining road we were to take. Either it was overgrown, had deteriorated or was buried under snow. We hiked offtrail, bushwhacked and scrambled up the ridge.

There was much more snow than we expected, and although most of it was firm, we did a fair amount of postholing. We saw little evidence of any old mining activity (Leitch Collieries would have been a better starting point for that). Because we were often in the trees, the views were limited, but Turtle Mountain presents its best side to the ridge.

After reaching the summit, we had little interest in retracing our steps back along the ridge. So we hiked back a short way from the summit and dropped down the west side before making our way to our car.

Although not an exciting trip, it was certainly more challenging and interesting than we expected. But I don’t recommend this trip when there is so much snow!

GPX and KML Tracks

The graveyard start is suggested in the guidebook